View of the Gateway Dinner in Jeffersonville March 31, 2006. Times Herald File Photo.

WEST NORRITON — When the decades-old Gateway Diner on Main Street was reduced to piles of shiny metal, old wood and chunks of concrete last year to make way for a new Wawa with gasoline pumps, it was an ignoble end for a stalwart establishment.

One fan of the diner wanted to cart it away in one piece to reuse it as a roadside eatery. But in the end, it was reduced to separate piles of materials that could be recycled. An Exxon gasoline station on the Trooper Road corner will become a Citadel Bank branch.

At 10 a.m., Friday, Wawa officials will celebrate a grand opening with free coffee, a hoagie-building contest and speeches from local politicians.

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Township officials eagerly cooperated with the approval process because the new businesses replaced a long-closed diner and gasoline station. That outcome is in marked contrast to Conshohocken, where a developer for another proposed Wawa ran into resident and borough opposition to requested zoning changes. The latest proposal for the Fayette Street location has shed the Wawa mantle in exchange for the description for “a convenience store with gasoline pumps.”